War Hero

The Prime Minister welcomed Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas of Estonia to Downing Street this morning for bilateral talks. Prime Minister Rõivas thanked the Prime Minister for the UK’s recent announcement to send regular deployments of troops to the Baltics for training with NATO partners.

He also welcomed the UK’s commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence – a commitment Estonia has also made. Discussing Russia and the situation in Ukraine, both Prime Ministers agreed on the need for sanctions to remain until the Minsk agreements have been implemented in full.

On the migration crisis, they discussed the need for more to be done to support Syrian refugees in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon as part of the comprehensive approach. The Prime Minister then updated Prime Minister Rõivas on the UK’s EU renegotiation. The Estonian Prime Minister reiterated his wish to see the UK remain in the EU and agreed on the need for reforms in order for the EU to be more competitive.

Finally, the Prime Minister congratulated Prime Minister Rõivas on taking over chairmanship of the Digital Five which will see Estonia chair the group of 5 nations – which includes the UK – that have the strongest government digital agendas.​